Fitness for Kids - Sliding Exercises Video

Margie Weiss: My name is Margie Weiss and this is Kids Cardio Conditioning. What we have here is two options of a cardio activity, it's not a jumping activity, so a child who doesn’t like to jump up and down or can't for some reason, can definitely go back and forth and still get a cardio work out. It's great for ice-skaters, speed-skaters, because you actually simulate the action of going side-to-side on the ice, but it is also really good for any athlete because inner and outer thigh strength is critical for balance and quickness and that’s what this works. It’s real safe on the knees because as you go back and forth, your knees aren’t going past your toes, they're staying within the range of your feet. If you don’t a have a slide -- this is a commercial slide, and you can buy this on the internet usually. It used to be the rage in the fitness industry but then kind of went out of favor because it's a little bit tricky and people were afraid of balance, but it's really fun as long as you lean forwards. Most kids love this exercise because they can go fast and it's real safe for them. If you don’t have a slide, if you got paper plates you can do the same thing, because what Riah is going to do is the same thing that Olivia is going to do in a bigger motion on the ground. Obviously, you wouldn’t do this on a carpet, you may not be able to slide, you want a flat surface for this one, and you want some good solid shoes. When you are on the slide, on the other hand, you don’t want to wear your shoes, because if you put your shoes on, number one, they’re not going to slide, but number two, the grip and the grind of stuff that’s on the bottom of your shoe will ruin the slide because it is a plastic, more smooth surface designed for sliding and not standing still and getting a grip. So, at first what Riah is going to do is she is going to just step to the side and then bring the foot together and then step to the side and foot together. Defensive position is always leaning slightly forward, you don’t want to be back here, hard to keep your balance, so you want the child to get the shoulders forward, tuck the belly in, squeeze the glutes and then slide side-to-side. Yeah, so she is nice and easy and low, side-to-side, and there you go. Then, if you want to go beyond that, we’re going to go on actual slide. So, Olivia is going to slide and then slide. And if you just notice, my hands are on her waist, so I can assist her getting side-to-side and she can get back and forth. Somebody who is brand new might not be able to get back and forth, so what you can do with that person, stop it here, she just turned around this way towards me and I am going to help her with my arms because the arms will help you to get across. She’ll slide and she’ll slide, so I can actually help her to get to the edge; two more, one, and two, yeah. The slide is slippery in the middle but where this black rubber is, it's not slippery. So you want to get to the non-slip side so that you have something to push off up. Now, what Olivia was doing is she stands back here for just a minute off of it. She was doing a basic slide, but you can do what's called an athletic slide which for your more advanced case is to lean over and go as fast as you can, side-to-side. Now, this floor is kind of slippery, so it's a little bit hard to move around, but if Olivia stands right on the edge, you can kind of anchor that slide in, so that way the person is moving, can go side-to-side. Do that for ten minutes, you’re going to feel it here, here, here, every place and your heart. So, you can do a lot of different things on a slide, that’s just basic movement, side-to-side and it's a really good easy and fun exercise for kids rather than just running outside, this is slightly different because it gets some different muscle groups, that they may not have used in the past. So, these are the slides or the paper plates.

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